By Issues & Insights Editorial Board | December 23, 2025
Last week, we published an analysis of President Donald Trump’s affordability speech by guest contributor Bob Maistros, who used his decades of communications, political, and speechwriting experience to argue that the speech missed the mark.
Bob’s piece got picked up by some other conservative blogs, which resulted in a flurry of negative comments on our sites and others. Comments along the lines of:
- “You are simply a hater as well as absolutely wrong. President Trump, on the other hand is absolutely correct. MAGA all day every day.”
- “Really? We’re talking about ‘tone’? That’s the bailiwick of unserious people. Y’know, like Obama.”
- “I’m sick of hearing how Americans want the president to hold their hands. Poor babies … a therapeutic presidency should step up to soothe our fragile sensibilities.”
- “I&I seems to have forgotten that Marcus Welby wasn’t on the ballot last November. Would they have preferred a bibulous Nurse Ratched explaining how we don’t realize how great a sixth straight year of 5% inflation is?”
- “Lots of Americans voted for Trump because they agree with what he says. Millions more Americans voted for Trump because of how he says it and how he acts. The beltway class despises Trump’s style, but Trump’s style connects with far more Americans than it offends.”
- “I’ve read some stupid [expletive deleted] in my day but this beats all.”
- “I&I continues to beclown itself, an amazing feat since they do not possess a sense of humor. I see a lot of therapy in their future.”
- “Getting so tired of pundits telling the President what he needs to improve on.”
We’ve written many, many times in this space about Trump Derangement Syndrome, and how it leads seemingly common-sense people into constant fits of rage. TDS makes it impossible for sufferers to credit Trump with anything. Even so-called conservatives can’t bring themselves to recognize that Trump has made more gains for conservatives than any previous president.
To them, nothing Trump does will ever be good enough. Everything else elicits yet another doomsday warning. (Just look at The Bulwark on any given day.)
The flip side of this – call it Trump Fanboy Syndrome – is almost as bad.
TFS sufferers act as though nothing Trump does is ever wrong, or misguided, or a violation of basic conservative principles. If Trump says the federal government should take ownership stakes in private companies, they cheer, despite decrying the industrial policies of Democrats. If he says we should slap massive tariffs on countries that have low barriers to entry, despite the harm it will cause to small businesses in the U.S., they say Trump knows best.
If you complain about a tone-deaf speech, as Maistros correctly did, they say, as one commentator did on Instapundit, that “Everything Trump does, he does for multiple reasons that aren’t necessarily readily apparent. Let’s wait six months and revisit that speech.”
Seriously? The 5-D chess cliché?
Trump gave that nationally televised speech precisely to reassure the public that – despite the constant blathering from the press – the economy is getting better. Did anyone get that message? Or were they put off by Trump’s unrelenting bluster? We suspect it’s the latter, in which case he failed to hit the mark and deserves to be called out on it.
Let’s state for the record, in case readers are confused, that we think Trump has achieved many great things. And we hope he continues for the next three years. His energy and determination are incredible. His willingness to tackle seemingly hopeless problems is inspirational. And he has suffered more obscene hostility – in the form of weaponized law enforcement, two assassination attempts, Deep State machinations – than any politician in our memories.
But he is just a man. He has flaws. Even Trump recently admitted that he has an alcoholic’s personality. His policy decisions are not immune to criticism. Nor is his leadership style, especially when it will likely affect the mid-term elections, and the next presidential election.
Trump will be out of office in just over three years, which will leave Never Trumpers in therapy for post-partum depression and Fanboys doing … what? … sitting at home not voting?
In the meantime, he will make mistakes. And when he does, we won’t shy away from pointing them out. Just as we won’t shy away from praising his successes.
Issues & Insights was founded by seasoned journalists of the IBD Editorials page. Our mission is to provide timely, fact-based reporting and deeply informed analysis on the news of the day – without fear or favor.
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